By Charles Ariko

UGANDA leads other countries in the East African region in attracting foreign direct investments, according to the United Nations World Investment Report 2010.

The report, which was launched on Thursday, states that despite the global economic crisis that created unease in world economies for the better part of 2009, Uganda continued to witness growth in foreign direct investments from $787m in 2008 to $799m in 2009.

Uganda attracted $799m, while Tanzania got $645m, Kenya had $149m and Rwanda had $119m.

The report stated that developing economies absorbed half of the global foreign direct investment inflows in 2009 and accounted for a quarter of the global outflows.

It added that Uganda’s foreign investment over the last 10 years had increased from $807m to $4,988b.

Investment state minister Aston Kajara said besides attracting investments from European countries, Uganda was witnessing an increase in investments from China and India.

Kajara attributed the increment to interventions like policy orientations that encourage liberalisation of both local and foreign investments.

He said this would be done alongside strengthening investment regulatory frameworks.